Page 4. Horses and farming

Horses were indispensable on farms until the introduction
of motor-driven machinery and tractors from the 1910s. By the
mid-1950s, farmers’ transition from horse power to tractor
power was almost complete.

Draught teams

Teams of draught horses, usually Clydesdales, were busy on
farms throughout the year.

In spring they were hitched to ploughs, discs, grubbers
and harrows, which were dragged across the soil to prepare it
for planting crops. Horses pulled the seed drill for
planting, and hauled the bags of seed and the fertiliser.

In summer they pulled the mower, tedder and hay rake for
haymaking, and hauled hay to the stack. When the grain was
ready, horse teams pulled the reaper-binder and transported
the sheaves. After harvest, they were used again to lightly
work the ground and sow it in pasture or a greenfeed
crop.

In winter horse teams were busy carting hay for stock
feed, or hauling firewood from the bush. They carted wool
bales and bags of grain to town, and brought back
supplies.

Many horses were required on large farms – some Canterbury
and Otago estates had hundreds.

Horse on the hill

The work of Clydesdales in the development of
agriculture in the Waimate area is commemorated by a statue
of a white horse on the hillside overlooking the town. It
was built in the late 1960s, made from 1,220 concrete
slabs. Its head weighs more than 2.5 tonnes.

Caring for working horses

Compared to maintaining a tractor, looking after a team of
working horses was a big job, and teamsters (people who drove
the horses) worked hard. They started early in the morning to
feed, groom and harness the horses, which took two hours,
before heading to work. There were another two hours of
feeding and grooming again at night.

Horses also had to be shod regularly. Some big stations
kept their own blacksmiths, while others used a smith from
the local township.

Horses ate as much as eight men or four sheep, so large
amounts of valuable farmland were taken up in growing oats
for them. Not surprisingly, the advent of the tractor was a
great relief to farmers.

The packing team

Packhorses were often the only means of getting goods and
stores to remote places. For example, fencing material had to
be carried to the fenceline, as did materials for mustering
huts, which were built in remote places on high country
stations.

When it was time to gather the sheep for shearing or to
bring them down off the high country for the winter, a
packman, or packy, and his team carted out supplies for the
musterers. In the morning the packy cooked breakfast for the
men and, once they had left to muster the sheep, he packed up
camp and moved on to the next hut or campsite to prepare the
evening meal. Musters could last a month or more.

Horses and farming today

Horses are rarely used on modern farms, except on a few
stations where the terrain is too difficult for
four-wheel-drive vehicles or motorbikes, or where the farmer
prefers working with horses rather than noisy machines.

Horses are particularly useful when working large mobs of
cattle. On the country’s largest station, Molesworth, the
property is so vast and the stock so widespread that horses
are trucked to wherever they are needed.

In the 1990s there was a revival of draught-horse
breeding. Today, several teams are maintained by enthusiasts
throughout the country and feature in demonstration ploughing
matches at events such as A & P (agricultural and
pastoral) shows.